Eli and I spent a long night together in the hospital - the nurses needed to check his blood sugar before every feeding, and I was hyper-aware of every little noise he made. But morning came, and brought with it these sweet little visitors, ready to meet their brother for the first time.
Caleb and Daisy both had school today, so Chris brought them over first thing in the morning. Luckily, I found "Big Sister" and "Big Brother" shirts for them months ago, so at least we had those on hand! All three kids were so, so excited to meet their new baby. I love that in nearly every one of these pictures, Lily has her hand on Eli. She is in love with him!
Oh, goodness. Look at that sweet grin on Daisy's face!
And of course, Lily tried to grab Eli away from Daisy. She was ready for her turn to hold the baby!
I couldn't love this any more. She is so sweet and gentle with him!
"Hug!"
Chris snapped this picture of me, reigning supreme in my hospital bed.
And I love, love this one. It's probably one of my favorites.
Then the kids left - Caleb to kindergarten, Daisy to preschool, Lily back to our house to stay with my mom.
Chris came back to the hospital for some quality time with his new son.
He is such a good daddy, and I think this hospital stay has been hard on both of us. Chris and I aren't used to do any part of parenting alone, or even being apart from each other.
Hi, sweet Eli! He was not even 24 hours old.
The lactation specialists were concerned that Eli might not be getting enough to eat; preemies tend to have problems regulating their blood sugar due to having less body fat. Eli's blood sugar was up and down, so we decided to pump colostrum and feed it to Eli via syringe. It was nice that Chris was there to help with it!
Kangaroo Care - extended skin-to-skin contact between Baby and a parent - offers remarkable benefits for preterm babies. It helps with temperature regulation, weight gain, sleeping, breathing... all kinds of stuff. Chris was happy to take a turn wearing Eli in a wrap, tucked into his shirt!
My dad stopped by on his way home from work to visit Eli. He was too afraid to touch a baby so new, but he was happy to meet his newest grandson.
Eli's poor heel got so many sticks! Blood sugar testing every three hours, newborn screenings, blah, blah, blah. Plus the security monitor on his ankle, plus his hospital wrist bands...Poor baby.
I think this one offers perspective on just how little Eli is.
My Kangaroo Care selfie. Yay for baby wearing!
Later, Daisy's teacher sent us this picture. When Caleb and Daisy were visiting this morning, I took pictures of each of them with my phone and emailed them to their teachers. Both teachers put the pictures up on the smart board and let the kids tell their classmates about the new baby. I can't get over how sweet it was that Daisy's teacher thought to take a picture of this; I love that you can tell from Daisy's posture and facial expression how very proud she is.
No comments:
Post a Comment